Groundhog Day at Sea
28 June 2007 – Ferry day 3
So by now you get it. Jog the dog, eat, sit in the lounge, read, sleep, play cards, sit on the deck, make up imaginary poker pals…
Day 3 on the ferry, more of the same.
Drew and I downloaded some of his photos for the first time and he discovered the wonders of cropping. It was fun and now every time he takes a picture, he tells me what he wants to do with it when we get it onto the computer.
The National Forest Service had a park ranger who rides on the ferry the entire trip and does 3 presentations a day about assorted wildlife and points of interest we will be passing. They also point out assorted wildlife. For those who haven’t been to a national park in a while, most of them have a Junior Ranger program. Kids get a booklet and have to do some exploring to answer questions. Once it is complete, the kids take it to a ranger who checks it, leads them in a Junior Ranger oath and gives them a patch or a pin (depending on the park). The boys did several on the last trip including the Yellowstone Junior Ranger which took 5-year-old Drew 3 days to complete. Since the ferry spends about 2 days in the Tongass National Forest which lines the Inside Passage, the kids can earn the Tongass Junior Ranger patch.
Unfortunately, the ranger was out of Junior Ranger booklets. So she gave the kids a few books about Alaskan plants and animals, they looked at them for a while and she gave them the Junior ranger patches.
Since people have been asking, here’s a bit about the ferry. Yes, we brought the car. All the cars are squished together about a foot apart front-to-back and about 3 feet apart side-to-side on the car deck. The car deck is closed during most of the trip except for 3-4 fifteen minute car deck calls during which all of us crazy dog owners walk our dogs and others can get things in and out of their cars. I didn’t take a picture of the car deck – it’s not much to see.
We had a 4-berth cabin with an attached bath:
Not everyone onboard has a cabin. Actually when the ferry is at capacity, only about 1/3 of the passengers have a cabin. There is a recliner lounge that is always kept pretty dark, so many people sleep there. They show movies in the recliner lounge. There is also a solarium at the top of the ship. It is open on the sides, but covered with a greenhouse-like roof, so it is warm. People pitch tents or just crash in sleeping bags in the solarium. There are public restrooms & showers for the folks who do not have a cabin.
We spent most of our time in the forward observation lounge:
For food, there is a snack bar ($7.50 for fast food cheeseburger) and a sit down restaurant at the back of the ship. The restaurant has the same menu of about 10 items for the entire trip. This ain’t no cruise. We had a few microwave meals (there is a micro in the snack bar) and lots of sandwiches during the trip.
The crowd on this trip was much different from last time. Three years ago, the ship was almost full and more than half of the passengers were either families on vacation or moving like we were. This time there were only a handful of kids onboard and not many people our age except 5-6 other military folks. The rest of the passengers were seniors. Lots and lots of older people on this trip. Also lots of old people with motorcycles.
It was a very different experience last time. The kids made friends with lots of other kids on the ferry and we hung out with the other military couples. We kept in touch with one family who moved to Anchorage at the same time we did. We hung out with Rich, Missy and their 4 – yes 4 kids, quite a bit during our first 2 years in Alaska. I loved introducing Rich, the Army-Major-JAG-lawyer, as my “ferry friend.”
We sprung for dinner at the sit-down restaurant tonight. It was OK, not great. Better than yet another sandwich in the room.
We all lugged stuff down to the car during the evening car deck call and dog jog. Debarking is interesting. The car deck is closed until the ferry pulls in to port, then they want you is your car immediately so people can begin driving off. That immediate part is difficult considering a few hundred people, all carrying stuff, are going down 2 narrow stairways and once you are on the car deck, you can’t pass any car is the owner has the door open to load it. It is a royal pain in the ummm deck.
I guess while I’m on that rant, I’ll mention that the staff was very rude this time. Except for Tony the bartender, we didn’t have a pleasant interaction with any crew member the entire trip. That surprised us, since it was very different last time. This time, they would just randomly change the car deck call times at 3 am, so when we drug ourselves out of bed to walk the dog. They only seated people at about half the restaurant tables because the wait staff didn’t want to serve more than 3 tables at a time (the mostly stood by the drink station and chatted. I won’t get into all of it, but the “customer service” was really bad this time around.
So, anyway, we spent the day doing a lot of nothing, the kids went to “bed” and we headed to the bar to hang with Tony for a while. Early rock’n’roll was playing in the bar, so we dealt Benny into the poker game. The best part of the bar (besides the $2.50 Alaksan Amber) is the décor. The ship was built in 1974 and the bar has to be original. Several thousand red, orange, and brown naugas gave their lives for this bar.
There is even a velvet Elvis and golf flocked wallpaper.
All this on the flagship of the last frontier.
28 June 2007 – Ferry day 3
So by now you get it. Jog the dog, eat, sit in the lounge, read, sleep, play cards, sit on the deck, make up imaginary poker pals…
Day 3 on the ferry, more of the same.
Drew and I downloaded some of his photos for the first time and he discovered the wonders of cropping. It was fun and now every time he takes a picture, he tells me what he wants to do with it when we get it onto the computer.
The National Forest Service had a park ranger who rides on the ferry the entire trip and does 3 presentations a day about assorted wildlife and points of interest we will be passing. They also point out assorted wildlife. For those who haven’t been to a national park in a while, most of them have a Junior Ranger program. Kids get a booklet and have to do some exploring to answer questions. Once it is complete, the kids take it to a ranger who checks it, leads them in a Junior Ranger oath and gives them a patch or a pin (depending on the park). The boys did several on the last trip including the Yellowstone Junior Ranger which took 5-year-old Drew 3 days to complete. Since the ferry spends about 2 days in the Tongass National Forest which lines the Inside Passage, the kids can earn the Tongass Junior Ranger patch.
Unfortunately, the ranger was out of Junior Ranger booklets. So she gave the kids a few books about Alaskan plants and animals, they looked at them for a while and she gave them the Junior ranger patches.
Since people have been asking, here’s a bit about the ferry. Yes, we brought the car. All the cars are squished together about a foot apart front-to-back and about 3 feet apart side-to-side on the car deck. The car deck is closed during most of the trip except for 3-4 fifteen minute car deck calls during which all of us crazy dog owners walk our dogs and others can get things in and out of their cars. I didn’t take a picture of the car deck – it’s not much to see.
We had a 4-berth cabin with an attached bath:
Not everyone onboard has a cabin. Actually when the ferry is at capacity, only about 1/3 of the passengers have a cabin. There is a recliner lounge that is always kept pretty dark, so many people sleep there. They show movies in the recliner lounge. There is also a solarium at the top of the ship. It is open on the sides, but covered with a greenhouse-like roof, so it is warm. People pitch tents or just crash in sleeping bags in the solarium. There are public restrooms & showers for the folks who do not have a cabin.
We spent most of our time in the forward observation lounge:
For food, there is a snack bar ($7.50 for fast food cheeseburger) and a sit down restaurant at the back of the ship. The restaurant has the same menu of about 10 items for the entire trip. This ain’t no cruise. We had a few microwave meals (there is a micro in the snack bar) and lots of sandwiches during the trip.
The crowd on this trip was much different from last time. Three years ago, the ship was almost full and more than half of the passengers were either families on vacation or moving like we were. This time there were only a handful of kids onboard and not many people our age except 5-6 other military folks. The rest of the passengers were seniors. Lots and lots of older people on this trip. Also lots of old people with motorcycles.
It was a very different experience last time. The kids made friends with lots of other kids on the ferry and we hung out with the other military couples. We kept in touch with one family who moved to Anchorage at the same time we did. We hung out with Rich, Missy and their 4 – yes 4 kids, quite a bit during our first 2 years in Alaska. I loved introducing Rich, the Army-Major-JAG-lawyer, as my “ferry friend.”
We sprung for dinner at the sit-down restaurant tonight. It was OK, not great. Better than yet another sandwich in the room.
We all lugged stuff down to the car during the evening car deck call and dog jog. Debarking is interesting. The car deck is closed until the ferry pulls in to port, then they want you is your car immediately so people can begin driving off. That immediate part is difficult considering a few hundred people, all carrying stuff, are going down 2 narrow stairways and once you are on the car deck, you can’t pass any car is the owner has the door open to load it. It is a royal pain in the ummm deck.
I guess while I’m on that rant, I’ll mention that the staff was very rude this time. Except for Tony the bartender, we didn’t have a pleasant interaction with any crew member the entire trip. That surprised us, since it was very different last time. This time, they would just randomly change the car deck call times at 3 am, so when we drug ourselves out of bed to walk the dog. They only seated people at about half the restaurant tables because the wait staff didn’t want to serve more than 3 tables at a time (the mostly stood by the drink station and chatted. I won’t get into all of it, but the “customer service” was really bad this time around.
So, anyway, we spent the day doing a lot of nothing, the kids went to “bed” and we headed to the bar to hang with Tony for a while. Early rock’n’roll was playing in the bar, so we dealt Benny into the poker game. The best part of the bar (besides the $2.50 Alaksan Amber) is the décor. The ship was built in 1974 and the bar has to be original. Several thousand red, orange, and brown naugas gave their lives for this bar.
There is even a velvet Elvis and golf flocked wallpaper.
All this on the flagship of the last frontier.
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